The Seer and What Remains
El observador y lo que permanece
A question about whether, in the face of fear and pain, it helps to step back and become the observer rather than the one who suffers.
The Seer and What Remains
A question about whether, in the face of fear and pain, it helps to step back and become the observer rather than the one who suffers.
When we're experiencing fear and pain, perhaps it would be easier for us to be the seer of it rather than the experiencer.
That helps. To notice there's something that is untouched is a necessary step. But it is only a first step.
The observer as first step
You notice that which observes the fear and pain effortlessly, and that it is untouched by it. It's not the full picture, but it's where things begin. In a sense, you move from the belief that what I am is confined to this body and this mind, to a more unformed sense of self: a pure subject. So there is a separation.
That separation isn't real, and that subject isn't ultimately different from the object. But at first, I think I'm contained in this body-mind. I can question that and experience reality as a formless subject. Then there's another step, which is to see that all of the universe is inside that subject, that it is the same thing. At that point there is no subject and no object. But that is a further step.
The one you're describing, stepping back to be the seer, is the one that is very regularly taught and pointed to.
It feels disconnected.
It is disconnected, yes. But it's a step. You see that something is untouched. Then you notice that the part which is untouched is still a subtle object, and that too can be dropped.
Beyond separation
Then fear and pain, the deepest fear and the deepest pain, that which we are avoiding, can be felt fully. The entity that resisted it can, in a sense, dissolve. Fear and pain and all of experience can be experienced fully without any form of separation.
What is that entity? Our beliefs?
The entity is what you believe you are.